Back in the 80s, a GUI paradigm called WIMP (Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer) began to establish itself as the new way in which most people interacted with a computer. When it comes to one of the most significant elements of that system, overlapping windows, I'm beginning to wonder, has it had its day?

Most of the computer illiterate users I know use apps full screen most of the time. Personally, I see no advantage to it, as it is a waste of screen real estate (with modern 22"++ screens, it wastes a lot) and makes simple things like drag + drop difficult. Maybe that's the reason why OS X doesn't have a proper maximise feature, a better idea than removing the option to use overlapping windows to accommodate for people who don't use the feature.

I am computer literate and I prefer to run windows maximized. I like to focus on one thing at a time. I can always switch tasks if I want to. As far as dragging and dropping goes the dolphin file manager has support for split windows.

Split windows within Dolphin don't really account for more than a minor fraction of my drag & drop activities. I drag file names from Dolphin to the command line (very practical), and I drag files from Akregator to Dolphin or to the desktop (I'm sure there are better ways to get podcasts, but I don't really want to bother with more than one RSS reader). It's not even about "switching tasks"; one task takes several applications.